A blog about Roman Catholic stuff and also politics!!

Normally, I wouldn’t talk about myself on here. But, this time I am going to because I want you all to read my testimony of how Our Lady of the Roses (http://www.smwa.org/) changed me!!

Trust me, rock-n-roll music is an absolute addiction!! You know how I know? I’ve been through it!! You will never know just how addictive that MESS is unless you have been an avid listener and then give it up, totally!! I’ve done just that and so I CAN say, and do say, that rock music is a complete addiction!!

Since my early childhood years till the year 1991, I loved rock music!! I also had a deep love for Jesus, and all of Heaven, at the same time, too. (But, God and rock-n-roll just do not mix!!) My parents took me to my very first rock concert when I was around the age of 5!! It was at The Ohio State Fair and it was either The Bay City Rollers or The Osmond Brothers in concert—I can’t remember which one because the other one of the two I saw the following year, once again at The Ohio State Fair!! Yes, I liked both of those groups by the age of 5!! I didn’t go back to rock concerts until I was a little bit older.

By the age of 11, I was definitely into listening to KISS!! For those of you who do not know this, KISS stands for “Knights in the Service of Satan” and that is SCARY!!!! I remember buying either one of their records—or maybe it was an individual member of the band’s record—at a garage sale at that age. I listened to their records (the one’s I had of them, anyway) on my stereo in my bedroom for hours. The devilish singing and all that boom-boom, boom-boom—-I do not know how my mother tolerated that stuff!! In fact, if I was a mom, there would be absolutely no way that any of that kind of devilish NOISE would even be SEEN or HEARD in my house!!

Then, when I was around the age of 13 1/2, my mom and I were both introduced to the Messages of Our Lady of the Roses, Mary Help of Mothers and soon afterward, we attended our first Rosary Vigil (that was the only Rosary Vigil that my mother went to). ( http://www.smwa.org/) I will have a separate testimony about Our Lady of the Roses. However, it was all due to the Messages of Our Lady of the Roses that I, out of my own free will and decision, without anyone telling me to do this—I broke every one of my records (including the KISS ones) over my knee and tossed them into the garbage!! It wasn’t until several years later that I was told I could have just scratched them with a key, because breaking them over my knee could have caused particles to go flying in the air and maybe even cause injury—like eye injury or something. But, I was only 13 or 14 at the time I did this. So, the important thing was that I destroyed these evil recordings of satan!!

However, I was then entering my high school years and then came the addiction of liking pop rock stars such as Duran Duran, INXS, Kajagoogoo, Depeche Mode, Rick Springfield, The Power Station, and numerous other rock bands. And there was Madonna!! She was just getting her start in the rock star world!! Her and her “Lucky Star” song!! Or what about her “Like a Virgin” song or “The Groove”—those had some fantastic, addictive beats!! Often times, when her songs would come on the radio—and by this time, in my teenage years, I was so much more interested in listening to rock music on the radio rather than cassette tapes—and I would be alone in my bedroom listening to them, I would try to imitate her dancing styles a little bit. I would also imagine me dressing like her!! You all know how immodest she dresses and how immodest her actions are!! It’s hard to believe that, at one time, she wanted to be a Nun or a Religious Sister!!

And, let’s not forget all the rock concerts I’ve been to. I can’t even remember who all I’ve seen. I did see INXS a couple of times—and I met a couple of the members after one of the concerts. I’ve seen The Power Station, Rick Springfield, The Monkees (on their reunion tour), to who knows who all I saw!! I think I’ve seen 60 or more rock bands/singers, including opening acts. Oh yeah, then there was The Romantics and Adam Ant!! And yes, I even saw Def Leopard, but I won’t say how I got in to the concert!! I can tell you that after every concert, I was about deaf for three days or so!!

I used to listen to rock-n-roll, mostly pop rock but some hard rock every-now-and-then, on the radio for hours and hours and I mean hours during my high school years!! I can’t remember if this was during my later grade school years, or my high school years, but every morning for some time, around 6:30, while getting ready for school, my oldest brother would play the song “Pump Up the Volume” by MARS. It wasn’t even really a song—just a bunch of devilish noise with a few words every now and then. For a long time, I could not STAND that noise!! In fact, I hated it. But, you know what? As odd as this sounds, I hated it so much that I actually began to like it!! I was getting used to hearing it every morning at 6:30!!

But, let me tell you all this much: If you are all so convinced that rock-n-roll is great and fine and that it’s not addictive, YOU ARE SO VERY WRONG!!!! If you are an avid rock music listener right now, you cannot say that it is NOT addictive until you completely STOP listening to that noise!!

I tell you this because Our Lady of the Roses (http://www.smwa.org/) changed me!! She cured me of this addiction, PRAISE GOD AND BLESSED BE GOD FOREVER!!!

Please let me tell you how this happened: As you all know, in my high school years I was so addicted to the pop rock stuff. I’d come home from school and when I wasn’t eating, doing my homework, or praying my Rosary (yes, I prayed the Rosary daily since finding out about the apparition site of Our Lady of the Roses, Mary Help of Mothers back in 1983, when I was around 13 1/2 years old), I was listening to pop rock music on the radio!! I spent hours upon hours doing such—every day!!

Then came the turning point!! On January 31st., 1991 my mother was killed in a car accident, leaving me to be the oldest and the only girl in the family. A couple of weeks later, I really wanted to go back to the apparition site of Our Lady of the Roses, Mary Help of Mothers (http://www.smwa.org/). I always wanted to go back to the apparition site, but my mother either never let me or she never told me that my Aunt asked her to ask me if I wanted to go back, saying that she—my Aunt—would care for me while there with her. My mother had her reasons. But, being that God called my mother Home to Himself, and may Almighty God have Mercy upon her soul, I had the freedom to return back to the apparition site.

So, I immediately reserved a seat on a chartered bus for a June Rosary Vigil. This was in February, 1991. Being that this particular Rosary Vigil was to be my second time at the apparition site of Our Lady of the Roses, Mary Help of Mothers (http://www.smwa.org/), as the first time I was there was in 1983, I chose to do something for a penance beforehand. I sort of started my own tradition at the time, which I haven’t kept over the years though. 😉 The first time I went to a Rosary Vigil at the apparition site, back in 1983—well one week beforehand I gave up something as a penance for my sins, to sort of prepare me for the Rosary Vigil and for being in the presence of Jesus and Our Lady!!

So, based on that decision, the second time I went, which was in 1991, I chose to do a penance and give something up one week prior to that particular Rosary Vigil. Being that I was so heavily into listening to rock-n-roll, I decided that that was going to be my penance for the week—to give up listening, willfully, to all forms of rock music (and that included going to movies, too). (By-the-way, during these years, I was also dating several guys and going to night clubs with either them or my cousin.)

I decided, on one specific day—I think it was a Saturday—exactly one week before that Rosary Vigil at the apparition site of Our Lady of the Roses (http://www.smwa.org/)—I decided that I was going to absolutely STOP listening, willfully, to all forms of rock music!! When that chosen day came, THAT WAS IT!! I QUIT LISTENING TO ROCK MUSIC COLD TURKEY!!! I made up my mind that it was going to be on THAT DAY and no beatin’-around-the-bush about it!!

During that week, the bus trip, to the apparition site, got canceled because there was not enough people signed up to go. So, I knew that I had a choice: I could either return back to listening to rock-n-roll or keep it as a penance until the next time I would go to the apparition site. I decided to keep it as a penance for my sins until I went the next time, which was in September of 1991, I think it was. So, I kept it as a penance for at least a couple of months!!

Now, I have to admit that I did, at that time, switch over to listening to country music—mostly country western. Mainly I listened to Dolly Parton, though. But, it wasn’t rock-n-roll.

Also, during my teenage years, my bedroom was full of posters and pin-ups of various rock bands/singers!! I mean, my walls were so full that I actually began to put pin-ups on my ceiling!!

Some time, in 1990 or early 1991, before giving up rock music, I used to keep a scrap book full of pictures of the pop rock band, INXS. During the first week that I completely gave up rock music, I opened up that scrap book and these are the words that came to my mind when I saw those same exact pictures of INXS: “Oh my God!! I used to like that band?!!” I saw those same exact pictures of INXS in a completely, totally, different way then I EVER saw them before!! There was a complete ugliness about them!! All those years I was completely blinded to the evil that they participated in—the evil of rock music!! It was a complete rude awakening to my soul when I saw them in a completely different way then I have ever experienced before!! And, that first week that I gave up listening to rock-n-roll, I experienced a peace, in my soul, that I never experienced before!!

Ever since that week, back in 1991, I have been cured of my addiction to listening rock music!! I have never had that desire to listen to it in the way that I listened to it back then. My music genre favorites have completely changed!! ALL THANKS BE TO ALMIGHTY GOD AND TO OUR LADY OF THE ROSES!! (http://www.smwa.org/)

So, yes. Rock-n-roll IS an addiction and it is MIND CONTROL!!! YOU can be cured of it!! It puts you in a trance-like state of being because it has the ability of taking you out of reality. It did to me, so I know. Get out of that MESS!! Stop listening to it because it is a soul destroyer!!! You may not realize it now, but trust me—it truly IS a soul destroyer and an ADDICTION!! But, you can leave that mess behind and you will be at peace!! TRY IT!! IT WORKED FOR ME AND IT WILL WORK FOR YOU!!!